AMYLOID DEGENERATION OF THE LIVER. 417 



ischsemia of the parts is produced by the obstruction 

 which the narrowed vessels oppose to the influx of blood. 

 If now we examine in which of the histological elements 

 of the vessels the substance is first found, it seems to be 

 pretty constantly seated in the little muscles of the circu- 

 lar-fibre coat. First of all the place of every fibre-cell is 

 occupied by a compact, homogeneous body, in which the 

 centre of the nucleus at first still appears as a hole, but 

 gradually every trace of a cellular structure is lost, so 

 that at last a kind of spindle-shaped flake (Scholle) re- 

 mains, in which neither membrane, nucleus nor contents 

 can be distinguished. In the calcification of small 

 arteries exactly the same process takes place ; the indi- 

 vidual fibre-cells of the middle coat take up calcareous 

 salts, at first in a granular, afterwards in a homogeneous 

 form, until they are at last transformed into homogeneous- 

 looking calcareous bodies, of a spindle-shaped form, which 

 coalesce and produce plates of a considerable size. In like 

 manner the amyloid substance pervades whole tracts of 

 tissue, and the walls of the artery are transformed into a 

 mass at last nearly completely homogeneous, compact, 

 shining with reflected light and colourless, which not 

 only does not possess the hardness of calcified parts, but 

 on the contrary exhibits a high degree of friability. 



Now when a change of this nature has advanced to a 

 certain height, an analogous change takes place also in 

 the parenchyma of the organs. This can nowhere be so 

 distinctly traced as in the liver. Here it sometimes 

 happens, that we meet with stages, where nothing else 

 in the whole organ is altered, excepting the minute 

 branches of the hepatic artery. On making fine sections 

 through the liver, carefully washing them and applying 

 iodine, we sometimes see, even with the naked eye, the 

 small iodine-red lines and points which correspond 

 to the cut branches of the hepatic artery. In a later 



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